The present invention provides a method for correction of stroke segmentation for recognition of handwritten characters and a handwritten character recognition apparatus with an improved feature of correction to the stroke segmentation.
One of the conventional hand-written character recognitions is disclosed in IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 12, No. Aug. 8, 1990, pp. 787-808. Strokes are drawn within fixed frames. If any stroke is drawn in a frame other than the frame within which strokes have previously been drawn, then the strokes previously drawn within the frame are segmented. It is however required to write strokes within the previously fixed frames. This method cannot be used to write strokes freely, such as when a person freely writes a character on a paper.
To solve the above problem, it is required to segment the strokes without using a frame. However, this method is likely to cause incorrect segmentation. It is therefore required to correct this incorrect segmentation.
In the prior art, there are several methods for correcting the segmentation of the strokes. One of the conventional correction methods is disclosed in Japanese laid-open Patent Application No. 59-2189. The user can correct the segmentation by using key boards. Another method for the correction of the segmentation is carried out by pushing correction switches provided on a hand-written character recognition apparatus. Still another method for the correction of the segmentation is carried out by writing a predetermined gesture on a tablet using a pen. However, in the prior art, there is no method for correction of the segmentation with reference to positions of a stroke newly hand-written in relation to a frame which encompasses previously hand-written strokes on a tablet by a pen.